Man Card

I traded in my Mini for a Minivan. Now before you take my “man card”, let me explain. I have four kids and a beautiful wife; my kids are 19, 17, 14 and 12. A Mini is not much help except for commuting back and forth to the office. It’s really a cool personal ride, but as far as schlepping kids – it is useless. We have the van for the long haul vacation trips and family goings during the week; but with the never-ending future of kids learning to drive is was time for a strategic change. I got my wife a late-model Honda that will be reliable and seat 5 and I started driving the trusty 10-year-old Mini (van).

My 12-year-old daughter is opposed to me driving the van. “It’s just not me!” she insists. Interesting, actually in this world where we drive something that we think reflects our image. I actually like the van from a pragmatic standpoint; I can get my bikes and gear in it and it works for me. As far as my image and surrendering my man card, I like to think driving whatever is necessary for the long-term investment, well-being of my family, making sure my wife has reliable transportation and the needs of my family are met makes me more of a man, not less. Believe me I would have loved to trade that van in for a 4×4 diesel crew cab, but financially that would have been irresponsible, leveraging my kids’ future for my immediate ego need. So for now I simply refer to the van as my new “Mini” and I’ll keep my man card in my wallet.